Commanding general of Army Cyber Command addresses chamber of commerce

By Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Jo Bridgwater

Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office

Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, commanding general of Army Cyber Command, addresses the Augusta Chamber of Commerce’s 106th annual meeting Feb. 27 at the Marriott Hotel to talk about the relocation of the command to Fort Gordon and its impact on the Central Savannah River Area.
Photo by Bill Bengtson / Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office The commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command, Lt. Gen. Edward C. Cardon, addressed the Augusta Chamber of Commerce’s 106th annual meeting Feb. 27 at the Marriott Hotel to talk about the relocation of the command to Fort Gordon and its impact on the Central Savannah River Area.

During his address Cardon talked about the impact the relocation will have on the community as Fort Gordon transitions to become the Army Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber.

“A city of innovation and a city of transformation, I’m really happy to be here tonight,” said Cardon in his opening remarks. “Often people thank me for my service but I’d like to think each and every one of you that work in the business communities of the United States of America because without you there wouldn’t be the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines that we have today because you underpin the national power of the United States that allows it to be so. So I want to thank you very much for what you do.”

“The strength of the nation is our Army, the strength of the Army is our Soldiers, the strength of our Soldiers is our families and that’s what makes us Army strong,” said Cardon as he quoted the chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno. Adding, “All that is in a community base and to feel the warmth that I’ve felt here tonight is really powerful.”

Cardon explained that when it came to figuring out where the new headquarters for Army Cyber Command would relocate it only took four months after he took command to decide that it would be in Augusta and that it was absolutely the right decision for our Army and for the United States of America.

“ These decisions to collocate the Army’s operational and institutional cyber organizations with National Security Agency- Georgia will create tremendous synergy through closer collaboration and coordination,” he said.

Based on the timeline to complete a new headquarters building at Fort Gordon, the earliest ARCYBER headquarters would move is in late 2018 / early 2019. The Army selected Fort Gordon as the permanent location for operational and financial reasons. Fort Gordon has a potential growth of approximately 300 military and 400 civilian positions when the command relocates.

“There’s a lot of growth that’s going to be happening here,” said Cardon to the crowd. “In addition to Army Cyber moving down here we’re creating the cyber mission unit here with military intelligence units moving here. The Cyber Center of Excellence is going to be here. It’s a transformation of the Signal Center of Excellence to the Cyber Center of Excellence and what that’s going to do to the institutional basis is critically important and then as importantly the National Security Agency Georgia is here. There will be no place in our Army that has the operational command, the 7th Signal Command, NSA Georgia, and the Center of Excellence in one place. The synergy, the effectiveness and the efficiencies that will be gleaned from that are truly, truly stunning.”

The Army is now focusing its investment in the consolidation and re-stationing of the ARCYBER headquarters in order to maximize the potential of emerging game-changing landpower technology, and refine command and control in the Army’s cyber domain. Doing so enables ARCBYER to provide command and control to their cyber mission forces and integrate with institutional and operational Army organizations at Fort Gordon.

Cardon said the decision to move his command’s headquarters to Fort Gordon is “Good news for our Army and good news for Army Cyber Command.”